Joe Hasiewicz is a Chicago
area composer that is currently writing instrumental music that uses traditional
rock instruments, guitar, piano, keyboard, bass and drums in a non-traditional sort
of way. Hasiewicz music is mostly fully scored but also allows for some improvisation.
The musical textures can sometimes become dense as they move through kaleidoscopic
harmonies and metric changes.

The primary
role of the guitar in Hasiewicz music is to carry melody using sustained timbres
reminiscent of traditional classical instruments rather than playing riffs or power
chords although an occasional strategically-placed power chord can be found in his
compositions.

The piano
provides the pulse and harmony over which other instruments can operate in a more
linear fashion. This allows the bass line to become more melodic and frees the drums,
which are not fully scored, to play in a more jazz-like improvised style.

“At this
point in time, any and all styles can become part of a composer’s musical palette.”
says Hasiewicz whose music is primarily influenced by and contemporary classical
music (more by minimalism than by serialism) as well as by his rock roots.

“In my compositions,
I typically try and tell a story that will make the listener feel as though they
had just gone through or experienced something” says Hasiewicz, “Not unlike seeing
a movie or reading a short story. It is the relationship between one sonority and
the next, which contains the story; or at least a fragment of the story. It is by
setting these sonorities within proximity of one another, that the fragments can
then be assembled to make a larger picture that reflects something about us.”

Hasiewicz music has been performed at the Chicago Cultural Center and at the
Kennedy Center in Washington DC.

And ... most recently on a Dutch Public Radio show called Studio6 hosted by Co de Kloet.